IPA Staff
16505 stories by IPA Staff
Bangladesh’s Bluster On Northeast India: Empty Threats, Or More?
By Ashis Biswas How serious is the slogan for wresting the seven sister states in India’s northeast region, raised by Islamic extremists in Bangladesh, for New Delhi? For a proper assessment of the political challenge this poses for India, a brief study of background information is necessary. Bangladesh sought...
China’s Tech March Grappling Against Its Own Weakening Economy
By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers NEW YORK: China is steering its future in an uneven manner and with great speed. In gleaming industrial zones, robots guided by artificial intelligence assemble electric vehicles that rival the best in the world. Data centres hum with vast computing power. Laboratories race to design...
Tensions Escalate In West Bengal Over SIR Process And Deletion Of Names
By Dr. Gyan Pathak As the Election Commission of India started sending notices to unmapped voters to appear before the officials for hearing from December 27, 2025, tensions in West Bengal have considerably escalated. There are about 32 lakh voters in this category, who are facing a prospect of...
Muhammad Yunus, Microcredit, And The Limits Of Debt-Led Development
By Aritra Banerjee For much of the world, microcredit remains one of the most celebrated innovations in late-20th-century development thinking. Small loans to the poor—particularly to rural women—were presented as a way to bypass weak states, defeat informal moneylenders, and unlock entrepreneurship at the grassroots. Few individuals became as...
Dhurandhar: Bollywood Blockbuster Rewrites India’s Terror Wars
By T N Ashok On a humid evening in Mumbai, the applause began before the final scene had ended. The screen was still soaked in gunfire, bodies still falling, when the clapping rose—hesitant at first, then thunderous. For many in the audience, Dhurandhar was not simply a film. It...
Trump-Backed Kushner-Witkoff Project Sunrise: Charity Or Business?
By Asad Mirza The proverbial ‘cat’ is indeed ‘out of the bag’, after a hiatus of more than two years, following the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. The details of the alleged ‘Project Sunrise’ was shared by the Wall Street Journal, over the weekend. The proposal is to...
SC’s Dismissal In Samuel Kamalesan: Secularism Vs. Military Discipline?
By Shruti Bedi On November 25, the Supreme Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition in Samuel Kamalesan v. Union of India (2025). It declined to interfere with a decision of the Delhi High Court which had upheld the dismissal of a Christian army officer for refusing to enter the...
India Secures Trade Deal With New Zealand; NZ Commits To $20 Billion FDI In 15 Years; Dairy Items Excluded
NEW DELHI: India and New Zealand on Monday announced the conclusion of talks on a free-trade agreement (FTA), under which Wellington will grant zero-duty access to 100 per cent of Indian exports and commit $20 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) over the next 15 years. India, in return,...
Core Sector Growth Rises To 1.8% In November; Four Sectors Still Contract
NEW DELHI: India’s core sector output recovered slightly in November to rise 1.8 per cent, after recording its first contraction in 15 months this October according to revised official data, but four of the eight sectors continued to record a year-on-year dip in production, including electricity, even as cement...
Government Steps Up Efforts To Reduce Tax Shortfall
NEW DELHI: As the gross tax revenue is projected to fall short of the budget target in the current financial year, the government has intensified efforts to reduce the shortfall. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has asked field formations to take additional steps to recover tax demands, especially...
US Tariff Accelerates Market Diversification By Indian Exporters
CHENNAI/AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI: The uncertainty over a US–India trade deal has helped increase the pace of diversification of India’s export markets. Players in export-intensive sectors such as gems & jewellery, textiles & apparels, and marine products are beginning to see the results from a renewed push to diversify into alternative...
Policies Helped Build Economic Resilience In 2025 Amid External Headwinds: RBI Bulletin
NEW DELHI: While the Indian economy was not fully immune to the external sector headwinds, coordinated fiscal, monetary and regulatory policies have helped to build resilience in 2025, according to note in the Reserve Bank of India’s December Bulletin. Demand conditions have remained robust of late, with indicators of...
BJP backs Bhagwat remarks, opposition sharpens attack
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Monday rallied behind Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat after his remarks describing the country as a “Hindu Rashtra” and warning of what he called “Islamic extremism” in West Bengal, setting off a fresh round of political sparring ahead of key electoral contests. Senior...
Sarod maestro forced home after Dhaka venue attack
Renowned sarod player Shiraz Ali Khan returned to Kolkata after fleeing Bangladesh when the cultural venue where he was scheduled to perform was vandalised amid unrest in Dhaka, an episode that has sharpened concerns over artist safety and disrupted a cross-border cultural engagement. Khan had travelled to the Bangladeshi...
Trade deal with US near finish, says Goyal
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on December 22 that negotiations between India and the United States on a bilateral trade agreement have entered an advanced phase, signalling movement on an economic relationship that has seen prolonged discussions over tariffs, market access, and regulatory standards. Addressing journalists, Goyal...
Trump revives disputed mediation claim
US President Donald Trump has repeated a claim rejected by New Delhi and Islamabad that he helped avert a military confrontation between India and Pakistan earlier this year, portraying the episode as a “potential nuclear war” and arguing that the only major conflict he has yet to resolve is...
Pak, Bangladesh defence talks signal strategic shift
Islamabad and Dhaka are moving closer to a proposed Mutual Defence Agreement, according to senior diplomatic and foreign ministry officials cited by CNN-News18, a development that would mark a notable recalibration of ties between the two South Asian neighbours amid broader regional strains involving India. Officials familiar with the...
Assam violence targets BJP leader’s home
Violence erupted in Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district on Monday after protests linked to demands for evictions escalated into arson and stone-pelting, with demonstrators setting fire to the ancestral home of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council Chief Executive Member and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tuliram Ronghang in Dongkamukam. Police said...
